Team Penske eSports eNASCAR Heat Pro League Race Report
Track: Virtual Atlanta Motor Speedway
Race: Round 8 – NASCAR Cup Series
Date: June 25, 2020
No. 2 Shell-Pennzoil Ford Mustang – Brian Tedeschi (ShellVPower22)
Console: Xbox One
Start: 11th
Finish: 2nd
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 55/55
Points: 4th (-27)
Notes:
- Brian Tedeschi (ShellVPower22) was part of a great finish at Atlanta Motor Speedway in Thursday night’s Xbox One race for the eNASCAR Heat Pro League (eNHPL), coming up just .015 seconds short of a win in a thrilling photo finish.
- The Purdue University graduate started the race from 11th position but didn’t stay there long. He worked his way up to third by lap 11. Unfortunately, after pitting under a lap 19 caution Tedeschi came off pit road in seventh position and would initially struggle to make up the lost positions.
- Following a rash of late-race cautions, Tedeschi restarted third in two-lap dash to the finish. He dove underneath the eventual race winner coming off of Turn 4 and the two raced hard to the finish line with Tedeschi coming agonizingly close to his first win of the season.
- Thursday evening’s race was the final event of the second segment of the 2020 eNHPL season. Tedeschi moved up to fourth-place in the driver standings while Team Penske eSports is now sixth in the team standings following the Atlanta event.
Quote:
“Man, we had a pretty wild race tonight at Atlanta. In the NASCAR Heat game, Atlanta is really draft dependent and being in the bottom lane with all the energy is very important. I had a really good No. 22 Shell V-Power Ford Mustang. My Team Penske eSports teammate, Corey Rothgeb, helped me a lot for this race. He had a great setup and we were both fast thanks to it. Now I can’t wait to get to our next race at Eldora. That is my favorite track and I’m going there to win.”
No. 22 Wurth Ford Mustang – Corey Rothgeb (Wurth_2)
Console: PlayStation 4
Start: 8th
Finish: 5th
Status: Running
Laps Completed: 55/55
Points: 2nd (-14)
Notes:
- Corey Rothgeb (Wurth_2) entered the final race of the second segment of the eNASCAR Heat Pro League season with a chance to lock himself into the championship finale, but the Waynesboro, Va. native came up just short. Rothgeb finished second in the segment with a fifth-place finish Thursday night at virtual Atlanta Motor Speedway.
- Rothgeb started the 55-lap race from eighth position. He quickly able to move to the bottom line and was up to fifth position by the second lap of the race.
- He was shuffled off the bottom and dropped back in the running order, but the Wurth driver caught a break when a caution flag flew during the first round of pit stops. Rothgeb had yet to make his stop while other championship contenders were trapped a lap down.
- A late-race caution setup and two-lap dash to the finish. Rothgeb lined up seventh for the dash to the checkered flag. A strong run through a chaotic mass of aggressive driving resulted in him crossing the finish line in the fifth position to claim second in the standings of the second segment of the 2020 eNHPL season.
Quote:
"We came up just short with the No. 2 Wurth Ford Mustang tonight at Atlanta, but I honestly feel we were the fastest car on the track. Especially after the final caution and we were able to come in for tires and make a run to the finish, but we were all just packed together, and I couldn’t go anywhere. Having speed like that makes me confident for the next segment and I’m ready to get it started.”